This invention relates to dispensing mechanisms, and is more particularly directed to devices for vending items, e.g., pre-paid debit cards (such as telephone long-distance calling cards) when a customer has deposited a predetermined amount of money into a coin and/or currency acceptor device.
Self-service card vending machines have become popular at locations where customers are likely to need to make local, regional, or long-distance calls. These machines are frequently located at airports, convenience stores, college student centers, and near pay telephone banks. The cards typically carry a toll-free access number, and a code or PIN number that the customer also dials for authority to connect to a distant party. Each card has a unique PIN number, which must be activated at the long-distance company at or before the time that the card is sold to the customer. These cards are variously referred to as phone cards, long distance cards, prepaid phone cards, debit cards, or telecards. These cards typically come in denominations such as $10, $20, or $50, which can correspond to 30 minutes, 60 minutes, or 150 minutes of long-distance calling time, respectively.
The current state of the art in card vending mechanisms requires the card dispenser to be interfaced with a main control board that is in turn connected to the currency acceptor or coin acceptor. The card venders are set up to dispense a single debit card when the controller provides the dispenser with an impulse. For example, the customer inserts a ten-dollar bill into the currency acceptor, and the card dispenser dispenses a card carrying ten dollars of long distance service, e.g., thirty minutes of calling time. Some card dispensing machines can dispense two values of card, e.g., a ten dollar card and a five dollar card. Current technology requires separate card dispensers for the five dollar cards and for the ten dollar cards, with each containing a respective supply of these phone cards. This means that the machine requires two mechanical dispensing mechanisms, as well as two separate supplies of cards which require pre-authorized phone card PIN numbers.
One drawback with present-day prepaid debit phone cards, is that the cards are printed to carry the actual phone time controlled with a PIN (personal identification number) that is also printed on the card. The PIN is typically a ten digit number that the customer is required to dial in when using the card to access the long distance service. Typically, the long distance carrier will provide the phone card seller with a batch of PIN numbers, and will charge the card seller a fee for activating those PIN numbers. In the current dispensing machines, all of the PIN numbers on the telephone debit cards have to be activated at the time they are placed in the dispenser, because customers will use the calling service immediately upon purchasing the card. This means that the phone card seller has to purchase a large inventory of activated PIN numbers well before the cards are sold, tying up significant capital. Also, because the vending machines contain a large supply of cards, all with activated PIN numbers, the phone card vending machines are an attractive target for theft.
Moreover, phone card dispensing machines do not provide a separate receipt. Many locations charge sales and local taxes on the sales of these cards, on top of any telephone taxes, and foreign jurisdictions may impose a value-added tax (VAT). While it is useful, and in many cases a business necessity, to keep track of these taxes, there is no record of them provided with the phone debit cards. In some cases, e.g., in connection with charitable use, a refund of the sales tax or VAT can be requested, but the request typically requires a receipt or similar substantiation.
Another problem with current prepaid debit phone cards is that, with the value being loaded on the card when printed, there is a very limited range of different value cards that can be purchased at a given dispensing station. Typically only one value or two values of phone cards are available from a given vending machine.